Sixteen Tons

You load 16 tons and what do you get?

You get another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

Now some people say a man's made out of mud

But a poor man's made out of muscle and blood

A-muscle and blood, skin and bones

A mind that's weak and a back that's strong

You load 16 tons and what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

Well I was born one morning when the sun didn't shine

I picked up the shovel and I walked to the mine

Loaded 16 tons of number 9 coal

And the straw boss a-hollered, "Well, bless my soul"

You load 16 tons and what do you get?

You get another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

Well I was born one morning, it was drizzlin' rain

Fightin' and trouble are my middle name

I was raised in the bottoms by a mama hound

I'm mean as a dog but I'm as gentle as a lamb

You load 16 tons and what do you get?

You get another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

Well if you see me coming, you'd better step aside

A lot of men didn't and a lot of men died

I got a fist of iron and a fist of steel

If the right don't get you then the left one will

You load 16 tons and what do you get?

You get another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store